we made a decision!

[Guest guest]

After a long haul and a lot of soul-searching, we finally finished

's IEP yesterday. Although we do believe would be

capable of earning a regular high school diploma, we have decided she

would be happier and learn more overall if she continued to be included

in regular ed much of the time. It's a bummer that our school cannot

figure out how to modify regular ed classwork and still meet the state

standards (and hence make a class " count " towards graduation

requirements) but the reality is, our teachers have 45+ students per

class, 5 classes per day and law or not, trying to get them to modify

work for that works for her and yet still meets the standards

isn't going to happen. We have seen 3 years of poor modifications in

middle school, and think the stress that it has put on her was

significant. We also weighed the necessity of a regular diploma in her

post-high-school life, and besides bragging rights for us, we couldn't

come up with a good reason that her life would be better/different if

she had that piece of paper; her long term employment prospects are not

likely to depend on a diploma, but rather appropriate job skills and

training.

So, she will be taking Resource Intro to High School Algebra, Resource

English, Biology, PE, choir and a study hall-type elective. Because the

team was so relieved that we were not pushing for the diploma track, I

was able to say a lot about the importance of good, dynamic, exciting

general ed teachers who were organized and would give her the concrete

facts she likes to spew out at the dinner table :-) Having an older

child at the school, I was able to get them to agree (not in the IEP,

can't write in staffing of course) to put her in the most coveted Bio

teacher's class, which will be a wonderful experience for her, and she

will be there with typical peers she's been with since kinder. She is

currently is Resource Math and English, and works very independently and

successfully here, so we are not changing that, and she has friends in

this group as well. Plus, she's one of the top Resource students, so we

felt it was good to be " top dog " once in awhile too. She will still

participate in graduation and other related activities, so the

" certificate of completion " students see no differences there.

I will always question this decision, I hope we haven't gypped

out of something she should have received.... maybe in a different

school district, different state, she'd have received a diploma, but it

would be a long, hours and hours of HW/day, stressful 4 years if we

choose diploma, and that seemed wrong to do to her. Hope we're right.

, mom to (16) (14 DS) and Sammy (12)